Frequently asked questions (FAQ)

We have over 2,900,000 legal documents that span Ireland, United Kingdom, Europe and the United States.

This includes court dockets/filings, judgments, regulatory decisions, court rules and practice direction.

We update our database multiple times a day. As soon as our system detects a new document within our coverage it is processed and made available to all users (this can happen as often as every 10 minutes).

Yes.

We always link - where possible - to the source of the data so that lawyers, librarians, planners and other legal professionals can view the original documents.

All our data is sourced directly from each public source. For example:

• Irish High Court Record data: CSOL
• An Bord Pleanála data : https://www.pleanala.ie/
• Workplace Relations data : https://workplacerelations.ie/en/
• Environmental data : https://www.ocei.ie/
• European Court of Justice data : https://eur-lex.europa.eu/homepage.html
• European Court of Human Rights data : https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng#
• United Kingdom data: https://Gov.uk and https://caselaw.nationalarchives.gov.uk/
• United States data: https://www.courtlistener.com/

Often, legal documents online are no more than scanned paper documents made into PDFs. We’ve processed the contents of hundreds of thousands of scanned PDFs and similarly difficult-to-search sources to make them fully searchable for legal professionals.

*occasionally some documents have attachments which are not searchable.

*censored documents are still censored in Vizlegal.

Yes.

If there’s a public source you routinely access that you think should be included in our coverage, we offer bespoke data acquisition services on a paid basis. Price varies depending on the complexity of the underlying data that needs to be acquired. We would be happy to hear from you at hello@vizlegal.com.

In short:

• blazing fast search
• advanced prefilters and post filters
• regional configuration settings to finetune results
• Timelines connecting related judicial proceedings
• Keyword alerts to notify you of new judgments of interest
• Track new cases as they progress through the judicial system

Yes.

In order to save legal professionals time looking for cases of interest, Vizlegal allows you to set alerts for keywords and phrases used in new cases in any of our coverage, so that you can be notified when a relevant case is added. Notifications can be personalised.

Alerts are useful for keeping tabs on specific litigants or certain concepts in court. For example, “tell me the next time that ‘ACME Corporation’ appears in a Labour Court decision” or “tell me the next time that ‘protected disclosure’ appears in an Irish judgment”.

Yes.

By following a High Court case on Vizlegal, you can track its activity, such as when there has been a new affidavit or notice of court motion filed. You can set email notifications to receive updates on each case you want to follow. No more periodically refreshing databases (we do that for you).

Each of our sources have their own specific set of filters, helping you find information quickly. All of our filters can be found here:

European Union

Court of Justice of the European Union

• Author
• Document type
• Type of procedure
• Result
• Judge-Raporteur
• Advocate General
• Subject Matter
• Originating Country/Organisation

European Court of Human Rights

• Document type
• Originating body
• Type description
• Respondent State(s)
• Articles

Ireland

Ireland High Court Records

• Proceeding type
• List type
• Plaintiff name
• Defendant name
• Solicitor firm (for plaintiff or defendant)

Ireland Judgments

• Court
• Proceeding type
• Judge

Ireland Court Rules and Practice Directions

• Document type
• Court

Ireland Workplace Relations

• Body
• Legislation
• Official
• County

Ireland Supreme Court Determinations

• Proceeding type
• Composition of Court
• Result

Ireland Office of the Information Commissioner

• Public Body
• FOI Act
• Section

Ireland Trademarks

• Proprietor
• Goods-Service
• Goods-Service Subclass

Ireland Tax Determinations

• Category

Ireland Commissioner for Environmental Information

• Public Authority

Ireland Circuit Court Diaries

• Category
• Venue

Ireland Legal Costs Adjudication Decisions

• Official
• Determination
• Proceeding type

Ireland International Protection Appeals Tribunal

• Country
• Appeal type
• Decision/Outcome
• Common terms
• Tribunal member

Ireland An Bord Pleanála

• Planning authority
• Province
• County
• Case type group
• Case type
• EIAR
• NIS
• Decided Case
• Site address
• Description
• Decision
• Parties

United Kingdom

United Kingdom Supreme Court

• Justices

England and Wales High Court Filings

• Court
• Case category
• Case type
• Case subtype
• Case status
• Office copy available
• Defendant
• Claimant
• Company
• Legal Representative

England and Wales Court of Appeal

• Division
• Judges

England and Wales High Court

• Division
• Judges

UK First-tier Tribunal (Tax)

• Category
• Subcategory
• Respondent
• Chairmen/Special Commissioners

UK Upper Tribunal (Tax and Chancery Chamber)

• Category
• Judges

UK Employment Tribunal

• Jurisdiction codes
• Country
• Officials

UK Employment Appeal Tribunal

• Categories
• Sub-categories
• Judges

UK Competition Appeal Tribunal Judgments

• Case Type
• Respondent type
• Tribunal
• Keywords Procedural
• Keywords competition
• Keywords communications

UK Competition Appeal Tribunal Documents

• Document type
• Case type
• Respondent type
• Tribunal

UK Competition Appeal Tribunal Cases

• Case status
• Case type
• Respondent type
• Tribunal

United States

United States Supreme Court

• Precedential status

United States Courts of Appeals

• Circuit
• Precedential status

Yes.

Lawyers, planners and other legal professionals can change their main region of interest in settings, in order to make searches quicker and more accurate. They can also turn off or on specific sources, such as a given region, court or tribunal.

We recognise that legal professionals can waste valuable time every day by manually checking different court websites to see if cases of interest have been updated.

By following a case, you will be reminded by email of changes to cases that you follow (such as a new affidavit or court order). The most recent changes will be highlighted in yellow, and there is also the option to view previous versions of the case with our version history feature.

The fully automated calendar is available only to Law Firm and Enterprise subscribers.

Law firms routinely employ significant human resources to find their upcoming court dates. Sometimes law firms miss court dates. Vizlegal has developed a solution to mitigate risk of missing dates, while also streamlining the firm’s overall view of upcoming court dates.

Vizlegal collects data on Circuit, High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court diaries on a daily basis from the Courts Service systems - meaning Vizlegal has all future court dates for all Irish firms, refreshed daily, delivering all scheduled court dates to customers.

This feature is available to Law Firm and Enterprise customers. Once a customer registers, their future detected court dates become immediately available to browse. Legal professionals also receive email reminders of their upcoming court dates across the Irish courts system, which can be personalised in settings.

Explore the premium subscription options here

Vizlegal Timelines show how a case has progressed over different courts and jurisdictions over time.

Timelines give practitioners a unique view of the progression of a case from lower tribunals such as the Workplace Relations Commission to High Court appeals, and onwards to subsequent judgments such as the Supreme Court and Legal Costs Adjudications.

Yes.

Judgments can be downloaded, printed and shared using Vizlegal in just a couple of clicks. In addition, any document in Vizlegal can be bookmarked and tagged on the platform - making it easy to find it again later (and on any device).

Yes.

Judgments can be downloaded, printed and shared using Vizlegal in just one click.

Yes.

Legal professionals buy England & Wales High Court Filings and Orders through Vizlegal. Once ordered, Vizlegal will send a copy of the court document to you via email, upon release from HMCTS.

Yes.

Legal professionals on Vizlegal use search syntax to specify their query and account for typos - such as in the names of plaintiffs or defendants.

Even when no results match the search terms, further searches are carried out in the background based off keywords, past searches and preferences.

Yes.

To keep legal professionals up to date, we send two daily emails (that can be customised in settings).

The ‘Calendar Summary’ acts as a reminder for upcoming court dates for cases of interest.

Your ‘Alerts & Cases’ notifies you of any changes to any of your followed cases and shows if there has been an update to a search alert.